Allahabad High court acquits man in wife, sons’ murder case, cites lack of evidence
A judge overturned a 2017 murder conviction and found that there was no motive proved nor any sufficient chain of circumstantial evidence.
New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court acquitted a man convicted of killing his wife and two sons in Mathura in 2017, stating the prosecution failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
The man has been ordered to be released, following the allowance of his appeal against the trial court’s conviction.
The High Court’s order came from a Division Bench comprising Justices J.J.
Munir and Sanjiv Kumar, who said that for any case built purely on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution is obliged to demonstrate a “clear, cogent and convincing motive” for the murder.
It further added, “It will be unsafe for this court to uphold a conviction unless a satisfactory and cogent motive has been established and an unbroken chain of circumstances have also established the offence beyond reasonable doubt.
In 2017, the man’s wife and two sons were found dead in Mathura and a trial court had held the husband guilty and convicted him of their murders.
The High Court found the evidence led by the prosecution not to be sufficient for such conviction.
The ruling recalled that a strong suspicion cannot be a substitute for proof in criminal proceedings.
The High Court said that the chain of evidence in cases built only on circumstances has to be unbroken so that it is completely and convincingly indicative of the culpability of the accused.
